[squeakland] Programming or computer science for kids

[Jecel Assumpcao Jr.]

Karl,

> It seems he got full founding for this project at
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/512752850/lauren-ipsum-computer-science-for-kids

Great news! I wonder why he needed $500?

> I look forward reading the whole book.

So do I.

> I liked yours too Jecel. Much the same imagery.

Thanks! I had planned to write a whole book in that style, but playing
with the fact that the project was named "Merlin" and the language was
"Self". I only wrote a few paragraphs explaining it hadn't been written
yet:

http://www.merlintec.com/lsi/tutorial.html

The plan was to teach these ideas:

- Objects and messages, using objects, changing objects, creating new
objects, dealing with errors and debugging
- How to decompose a problem into objects
- Algorithms
- Generalization
- (Re)Factoring

The reference material would be:

- Design Patterns
- Object library

> I think this kind of
> thinking kan give solutions to many problems faced in programming.
> Sometimes seeing thems as actors can make the solution to the problem
> seem obvious. Setting up and translating that issue in a computer is a
> struggle. All sorts of digressions later you can focus on the problem
> again, if you are lucky.

When I came up with the above plan I had not seen "Structure and
Interpretarion of Computer Programs" yet.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

This is not for children, of course. But I was amazed at how much of
computer science they were able to pack in a relatively short course. I
still like my own plan, but it could be interesting to borrow some ideas
from these guys and present them in a way that children could use.

At one point I was thinking that nobody reads books anymore and it might
be interesting to make movies instead. These could use computer animated
characters and have a story like the ones we have been discussing. For
example, I have mentioned that debugging is such an important idea. What
if Sherlock Holms showed up and the other characters helped him solve
some mysteries?

But a movie is necessarily very superficial compared to a book and it
progresses at a single pace that will bore some and leave others behind.
So at best it could be used as an ad for the corresponding book and
limit itself to showing the flavor of what is to be learned instead of
the details.

Given that the learner has a computer (or what is the point?) then
perhaps a series of Etoys projects might be better than a paper book?
Other than the "Demon Castle", I don't know what has been done in this
direction.

-- Jecel